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The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle’s third mission (OTV-3) came to an end on October 17 when the unmanned craft landed safely and autonomously at Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California after 675 days in orbit. Altogether, the three missions have totaled 1367 days, and a fourth mission is expected to launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida sometime in 2015. The project, headed by Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is classified. As such, no one really knows what OTV-3 has been doing up there for nearly 2 years.
The Air Force has been fairly vague about the mission. The spaceplane was said to be testing “advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high temperature structures and seals, conformal reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems, and autonomous orbital flight, reentry and landing.”
The Boeing X-37B is a modified version of the NASA’s X-37 design. The unmanned craft intended for low Earth orbit looks like a smaller version of the space shuttle at only 29-feet-long with a 15-foot wingspan. Like the space shuttle, it is launched vertically using Atlas V rockets, though it is able to land horizontally on a runway, like a plane. Solar panels charge the spaceplane’s lithium ion batteries once it has left Earth’s atmosphere. Though it was designed to remain in orbit for 270 days, it has far exceeded those expectations.
The Air Force claims that the objectives of the X-37B are to develop “reusable spacecraft technologies for America's future in space and operating experiments which can be returned to, and examined, on Earth.” However, it doesn’t seem likely that it will be used to retrieve satellites. Its cargo area is rather small at about 7 feet by 4 feet, so it is not clear what it could be carrying or what its payload might have been during OTV-3.
The latitudes at which it was observed while in orbit rules out any chance it could have been doing reconnaissance on Russia. If it were doing data collection, it was likely targeting the Middle East, Southeast Asia, or Northern Africa—none of which would be particularly surprising.
The secrecy of the mission and the fact that DARPA and the Air Force are at the helm have caught the attention of conspiracy theorists who love to speculate. Some have asserted that the X-37B was used for deploying bombs, interfering with satellites of other countries, spying on China’s upcoming space station, among other theories. However, many of these are not practical for the X-37B’s design.
It’s hard to tell exactly when the X-37B’s purpose will be revealed. Unless AFSPC decides to release that information, the documents could remain classified for a long time. According to Executive Order 13526, all documents are to be unclassified after a period of 25 years. However, under extenuating circumstances, the documents describing the mission could remain classified indefinitely. [Reply]
Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine could be offering new hope to men with genital abnormalities or injuries in as little as five years, thanks to one of their many tissue engineering endeavors: lab-grown penises.
While that may sound a little far-out, these guys are among the world leaders in regenerative medicine and they’ve achieved some remarkable things in the past. Back in 1999, they became the first in the world to successfully implant a lab-grown organ into humans—a bladder. Since then, they’ve transplanted engineered vaginas into women born with defects or without vaginas entirely, and have started working on growing tissues and organs for more than 30 different areas of the body.
Team leader Anthony Atala began this genital journey back in 1992, but it was not until 2008 that the scientists proved transplanting engineered penises was theoretically possible. Having spent a considerable amount of time working out the best way to engineer these tricky organs, the team managed to grow 12 functioning penises for rabbit subjects. After grafting them on to the recipients, all tried to mate with a female, eight successfully ejaculated, and four produced offspring. While these results were certainly encouraging, gaining approval for human trials is another kettle of fish. However, Atala is confident that it could be granted by the FDA within five years if they can prove the technique is safe.
So how do they do it? They first obtain a donor penis and strip all the cells from it with a detergent. The researchers are then left with a collagen scaffold which they then seed with a combination of cultivated smooth muscle and endothelial cells from the recipient. Using the patient's own cells eliminates the risk of immunological rejection that often occurs when transplants are given from another individual. However, because the cells are taken from the male’s genitals, it means that the procedure could not be used for female-to-male sex reassignment surgery.
The team has already engineered six human penises that are ready for transplantation; if approval for trials is granted and they prove to be a success, the researchers hope that they could be used all over the world to help people with a variety of problems. In particular, they envisage them being used in men who have suffered from traumatic injuries, for example those returning from the battlefield. However, they could also be used in individuals with congenital abnormalities, or children born with a disorder known as ambiguous genitalia. In the majority of instances, boys born with this condition are given a sex-change at birth, which can lead to serious psychological problems throughout life.
This technique also offers a vast improvement from existing penis replacement options, which are far from ideal. The procedure involves constructing a penis from thigh or forearm tissue and then inserting a prosthetic inside in order to achieve sexual function. The prosthetic is either a permanently rigid rod that is difficult to conceal, or an inflatable rod that requires a pump.
Although the team is hoping to be able to replace entire penises when they initiate trials, they think that a more realistic goal is to start with partial replacements, for example helping patients with erectile dysfunction. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Rausch:
I've wondered about this, and I need someone much smarter than me to explain it, but what prevents us from burning methane/human or animal waste to fuel power?
fuck if i know dude. I wish i could explain something like that.I just thought that video was pretty interesting [Reply]
Revolutionary ALMA image reveals planetary genesis
The observations used the telescope’s near-final configuration and are an enormous step forward in learning how protoplanetary disks develop.
This new image from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) reveals extraordinarily fine detail that has never been seen before in the planet-forming disk around a young star. These are the first observations that have used ALMA in its near-final configuration and the sharpest pictures ever made at submillimeter wavelengths. The new results are an enormous step forward in the observation of how protoplanetary disks develop and how planets form.
For ALMA’s first observations in its new and most powerful mode, researchers pointed the antennas at HL Tauri — a young star about 450 light-years away, which is surrounded by a dusty disk. The resulting image exceeds all expectations and reveals unexpectedly fine detail in the disk of material left over from star birth. It shows a series of concentric bright rings separated by gaps.
“These features are almost certainly the result of young planet-like bodies that are being formed in the disk. This is surprising since such young stars are not expected to have large planetary bodies capable of producing the structures we see in this image,” said Stuartt Corder from ALMA.
“When we first saw this image, we were astounded at the spectacular level of detail. HL Tauri is no more than a million years old, yet already its disk appears to be full of forming planets. This one image alone will revolutionize theories of planet formation,” said Catherine Vlahakis from ALMA.
HL Tauri’s disk appears much more developed than would be expected from the age of the system. Thus, the ALMA image also suggests that the planet formation process may be faster than previously thought.
Such high resolution can only be achieved with the long baseline capabilities of ALMA and provides astronomers with new information that is impossible to collect with any other facility, even the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. “The logistics and infrastructure required to place antennas at such distant locations required an unprecedented coordinated effort by an expert international team of engineers and scientists,” said Pierre Cox from ALMA. “These long baselines fulfill one of ALMA’s major objectives and mark an impressive technological, scientific, and engineering milestone.”
Young stars like HL Tauri are born in clouds of gas and fine dust, in regions that have collapsed under the effects of gravitation, forming dense hot cores that eventually ignite to become young stars. These young stars are initially cocooned in the remaining gas and dust, which eventually settles into a disk, known as a protoplanetary disk.
Through many collisions, the dust particles will stick together, growing into clumps the size of sand grains and pebbles. Ultimately, asteroids, comets, and even planets can form in the disk. Young planets will disrupt the disk and create rings, gaps, and holes such as those seen in the structures now observed by ALMA.
The investigation of these protoplanetary disks is essential to our understanding of how Earth formed in the solar system. Observing the first stages of planet formation around HL Tauri may show us how our own planetary system may have looked more than four billion years ago when it formed.
“Most of what we know about planet formation today is based on theory. Images with this level of detail have up to now been relegated to computer simulations or artist’s impressions. This high resolution image of HL Tauri demonstrates what ALMA can achieve when it operates in its largest configuration and starts a new era in our exploration of the formation of stars and planets,” said Tim de Zeeuw of the European Southern Observatory. [Reply]
Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine could be offering new hope to men with genital abnormalities or injuries in as little as five years, thanks to one of their many tissue engineering endeavors: lab-grown penises.
While that may sound a little far-out, these guys are among the world leaders in regenerative medicine and they’ve achieved some remarkable things in the past. Back in 1999, they became the first in the world to successfully implant a lab-grown organ into humans—a bladder. Since then, they’ve transplanted engineered vaginas into women born with defects or without vaginas entirely, and have started working on growing tissues and organs for more than 30 different areas of the body.
Team leader Anthony Atala began this genital journey back in 1992, but it was not until 2008 that the scientists proved transplanting engineered penises was theoretically possible. Having spent a considerable amount of time working out the best way to engineer these tricky organs, the team managed to grow 12 functioning penises for rabbit subjects. After grafting them on to the recipients, all tried to mate with a female, eight successfully ejaculated, and four produced offspring. While these results were certainly encouraging, gaining approval for human trials is another kettle of fish. However, Atala is confident that it could be granted by the FDA within five years if they can prove the technique is safe.
So how do they do it? They first obtain a donor penis and strip all the cells from it with a detergent. The researchers are then left with a collagen scaffold which they then seed with a combination of cultivated smooth muscle and endothelial cells from the recipient. Using the patient's own cells eliminates the risk of immunological rejection that often occurs when transplants are given from another individual. However, because the cells are taken from the male’s genitals, it means that the procedure could not be used for female-to-male sex reassignment surgery.
The team has already engineered six human penises that are ready for transplantation; if approval for trials is granted and they prove to be a success, the researchers hope that they could be used all over the world to help people with a variety of problems. In particular, they envisage them being used in men who have suffered from traumatic injuries, for example those returning from the battlefield. However, they could also be used in individuals with congenital abnormalities, or children born with a disorder known as ambiguous genitalia. In the majority of instances, boys born with this condition are given a sex-change at birth, which can lead to serious psychological problems throughout life.
This technique also offers a vast improvement from existing penis replacement options, which are far from ideal. The procedure involves constructing a penis from thigh or forearm tissue and then inserting a prosthetic inside in order to achieve sexual function. The prosthetic is either a permanently rigid rod that is difficult to conceal, or an inflatable rod that requires a pump.
Although the team is hoping to be able to replace entire penises when they initiate trials, they think that a more realistic goal is to start with partial replacements, for example helping patients with erectile dysfunction.
Finally, Jake can lay that slut Brett Ashley. [Reply]
Scientists say they are excited after detecting strong winds raging - on Uranus.
Space boffins are intrigued by the “extreme storms” which have been spotted on the normally bland surface of the ice giant planet.
The cloud activity is so bright that even amateur astronomers have seen signs of it in the blue-green atmosphere of the planet, which is 30 times further away from the Sun than the Earth.
Astronomers observing Uranus with the Keck Telescope in Hawaii detected eight large storms in the planet’s northern hemisphere on August 5 and 6.
One was the brightest ever measured on Uranus, accounting for 30% of all light reflected by the rest of the planet at a wavelength of 2.2 microns.
This is the “colour” of light that senses clouds just below the tropopause, where the atmospheric pressure is half what it is at the Earth’s surface.
Later observations by amateur astronomers revealed a bright spot, which scientists believe is evidence of storm activity much deeper in the atmosphere.
Co-investigator Dr Heidi Hammel, from the US Space Science Institute, said: “This type of activity would have been expected in 2007, when Uranus’s once every 42-year equinox occurred and the sun shined directly on the equator.
“But we predicted that such activity would have died down by now. Why we see these incredible storms now is beyond anybody’s guess.”
Uranus has a diameter four times that of Earth and is wrapped in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium, plus a dash of methane that gives it a blue tint.
The findings were presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Sciences in Tucson, Arizona. [Reply]
